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He heard what she didn’t say. “You’re safe with me, Summer. I don’t want anything from you, except your company, friendship, and trust. Maybe those things turn into something more. But to answer your question, I got burned by someone I thought I couldtrust. Someone I thought cared about me the way I cared about her. I didn’t see the end coming until it was too late and the damage had been done. We have that in common.” He turned onto the highway and headed down the coast. “I know you’ve been hurt in the past. I would never do that to you, because I know how it feels to give everything to a relationship and find out the other person is betraying you. Or in your case, using you.”
She turned to him. “Let’s not be those assholes.”
“Deal. And to add to my answer, yes, there have been other nice women in my life. But I’m not dating anyone right now. You have definitely captured my attention.”
Another of those barely there grins tilted her lips.
He really couldn’t deny the attraction between them. It felt like a hell of a lot more than chemistry. He truly wanted to know everything about her.
He worried about what Nate would think, but it didn’t diminish the desire to be with her at all.
They shared a comfortable silence as he drove and she stared out the window. As the minutes passed, he felt the tension in her grow. “What’s wrong?”
“It seems the closer we get, the more nervous I am. I have no idea what to say to him. I don’t know anything about him. This is all happening so fast. I have a thousand questions circling my mind. There are so many things I want to know, so many things I want to ask him.”
“We’re only a few minutes away.”
“It’s so odd to be this old and to have never heard his voice or seen his face. You have no idea how strange it is to miss something you’ve never had.”
“I have some idea.” Despite his mother abandoning him, he missed her. He’d lost his father when he was fifteen and missed him more each day.
She gave him a sympathetic frown. “I can’t imagine what it was like for you to lose both your parents so young.”
“I had my sister. We had Nate and Miranda and the girls. We’re all family now. Sometimes when I feel like I’m alone, I remind myself that I have all of them. And now you do, too. You have me.” It made him nervous to put himself out there like this.
She settled beside him, the tension in her easing. “Was he angry that my mom didn’t tell him about me?”
“Understatement of the century. But he knows there’s nothing he can do about it now. He knows that you wanted to see him. That makes him very happy. Don’t be surprised if he begs you to stay.”
Cody took the turnoff and slowed on the long driveway. “We’re here.” The huge house came into view.
The land was beautiful. Tall, old trees lined the wide driveway. Flowers bloomed in front of the house. And the house... It was magnificent. Shaped like a wide U with the entrance in the center of the eight-thousand-square-foot space.
Nate and his family lived on the left side. Cody and his sister, Brooke, lived on the right.
Both sides had basically the same setup. Living spaces on the first floor, bedrooms upstairs. Eight bedrooms, eight full baths, two half baths. In the open part of the U off the back of the house was a pool, spa, and garden area. Farther back on the property, the ocean pounded the cliffs.
He loved it here.
He wanted Summer to love it, too.
Cody drove around the circular drive and parked in front.
Summer placed her hand over her stomach. “I feel like I’m going to be sick.”
“Take a breath. You’re fine. It’s all going to be okay.”
The front door opened and Alex ran out, yelling behind him, “Papa, they’re here!”
“Oh, my god, he has a grandchild.”
“That’s my nephew, Alex. Your dad is the only grandpa he has on our side of the family.”
She paled. “Are we related?”
“Hell, no!” He ran a hand over his face. This had been one of the longest days of his life. While he’d filled her in some about Nate, Miranda, and her sisters, he’d not talked about his family. “Alex is my sister’s son. He’s five. When we were teenagers, our father died suddenly of a heart attack, and Nate became our guardian. He’s watched out for us all our lives.”
Understanding dawned in her eyes. “You live here with him?”
